Our daughter has a compound hemangioma slightly larger than a dime on her cheek by her ear. We have been treating it with propranolol and laser treatments for the last six months but we only saw moderate improvement. She is now a year old and Dr. Levitin thinks we should have seen more improvement by now and that continued treatment with laser and propranolol probably isn't going to do much. At this point he is recommending surgery. It would be a complete excision, removing the entire thing and resulting in a scar on her cheek. We are a little frightened by the prospect of surgery and the resulting scar and we aren't sure what to do, especially given her hemangioma is "cosmetic" and not interfering with any of her vital functions. I would really like to hear from anyone else who has gone ahead with surgery, particularly how their LO did with the procedure and how things look now.

I still have some damage left over, after all this time. I'm very sensitive about it. To me, it's very obvious. I don't think anyone else much notices. Once, my husband said something to me about how I shouldn't worry about it and I had to tell him he didn't have to walk around with it on his face.

My daughter required surgery, actually 2 (the 2nd was emergency). This was only because her hem was growing very rapidly, and into her eye, and affecting her vision. This was mandatory.

I do not think we would have agreed to surgery had it not been an emergency. There is so much they can do with laser, and if it is truly only cosmetic, I would also want to see if it goes away on its own. We had no choice, but given one we would have waited. My babe is left with a very bad scar.

My daughter had surgery to remove a large hemangioma in the center of her forehead when she was 13 months old. She is now 6 1/2. We have absolutely no regrets and are thrilled with the results. Her surgery was performed by Dr. Reinisch in LA. We have only wonderful things to say about him and his colleagues. Very happy with our decision as I hope you will be with whatever you decide.
Here is a before picture from her first birthday, 6 weeks prior to surgery. The next post has a current picture.
Good luck with your decision!

My daughter had one of her hemangiomas removed 2 years ago when she was 18 months. She had been on propanolol for 6 or 8 months prior and we saw no improvement. We are very glad we went forward with the surgery. She had it done by a plastic surgeon and her scar is in her hairline and just two years later the scar is almost invisible despite her having about 20 stitches. Her surgery was done at a day surgical center and she did fantastic. She had mild nausea from the general anesthesia, but after that wore off she was fine. If faced with it again, we would go forward with surgery-it was very nice to put the hemangioma journey behind us.

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